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Optical Spectroscopy and Composition of InGaN

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 September 2012

K.P. O'Donnell ,
R.W. Martin ,
M.E. White ,
K. Jacobs ,
W. Van der Stricht ,
P. Demeester ,
A. Vantomme ,
M.F. Wu  and
J.F.W. Mosselmans
K.P. O'Donnell
Affiliation:
Dept. of Physics and Applied Physics, Strathclyde University, Glasgow, G4 0NG, U.K.
R.W. Martin
Affiliation:
Dept. of Physics and Applied Physics, Strathclyde University, Glasgow, G4 0NG, U.K.
M.E. White
Affiliation:
Dept. of Physics and Applied Physics, Strathclyde University, Glasgow, G4 0NG, U.K.
K. Jacobs
Affiliation:
Department of Information Technology, University of Ghent, Ghent 7500, Belgium
W. Van der Stricht
Affiliation:
Department of Information Technology, University of Ghent, Ghent 7500, Belgium
P. Demeester
Affiliation:
Department of Information Technology, University of Ghent, Ghent 7500, Belgium
A. Vantomme
Affiliation:
Inst. Kern- en Stralingsfysica, Univ. of Leuven, B-3001 Leuven, Belgium
M.F. Wu
Affiliation:
Inst. Kern- en Stralingsfysica, Univ. of Leuven, B-3001 Leuven, Belgium
J.F.W. Mosselmans
Affiliation:
CLRC, Daresbury Laboratories, Warrington WA4 4AD, England, U.K.
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Abstract

Commercial light emitting devices (LEDs) containing InGaN layers offer unrivalled performance in the violet (∼400 nm), blue (∼450 nm) and green (∼520 nm) spectral regions. Nichia Chemicals Company has also produced amber InGaN LEDs with peak output near 590 nm. Here, we predict, on purely theoretical grounds, a surprisingly high limiting value of 1020 nm (peak) for InGaN intrinsic emission. We partly confirm this prediction by spectroscopic measurements of samples with photoluminescence (PL) peaks between 370 nm and 980 nm. In addition, we have measured the indium content of a range of light-emitting layers, using Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry (RBS), Extended X-Ray Absorption Fine Structure (EXAFS) and Energy Dispersive X-Ray Analysis (EDX). The PL peak energy is found to depend linearly on the indium fraction: violet-emitting layers have an indium content of ∼8%, blue layers ∼16% and green layers ∼25%. A linear extrapolation to the limit set by the Stokes' shift prediction, mentioned earlier, yields a limiting indium concentration of only ∼52%. The profound impact of these results on future extensions of nitride technology and current theoretical models of InGaN is briefly discussed.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 595: Symposium W – GaN and Related Alloys - 1999 , 1999 , F99W11.26
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1999

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